Icewind Dale 2 Forum Update

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(Originally posted by Z-Layrex)

Tax Young, Quality Assurance

Resistances: Resistances are now handled in 'points of damage', so aasimars would get, for example, 21-5=16 points of damage from a fireball.

Portraits and the collector’s edition: There are no extra portraits in the CE. They have more cards than the adventure pack, which some of the portraits appear in, I believe, but there are no extra portraits in-game or anything like that.

Both the CE and the adventure pack have the same new portraits as the regular version of the game.

Difficulty settings: I just checked this, and the way the difficulty settings work is as follows:

The difference between very easy, easy, normal, hard, and insane, is the BAB of the monsters and amount of damage that they do. Each difficulty setting has a bonus/penalty to enemy BABs and damage, which modifies the values in relation to the normal difficulty setting.

The amount of XP given for all difficulty settings is the same, whether the game is set to very easy, easy, normal, hard, or insane.

The number of enemies also does not change based on the difficulty level of the game - it is determined by the party's level.

Chad Nicholas, Scriptor

Length of time to cast a spell: Spells take anywhere from 1/10th of a round (one round = 7 seconds in the IE) to 10/10ths of a round just like in previous IE games. We had talked about the idea to make all spells either be half a round or a full round to cast per the ROOLZ, however I don't remember the reason for not doing the change.

Cloudburst: And Cloudburst; it's comedy gold.

Speaking of which, if you're playing a druid or ranger, don't forget to change your memorized spells when heading indoors. You can't cast Entangle or Cloudburst (and others) indoors.

Controlling elementals and demons: There is a reason you can't control elementals and demons directly -- they kick much butt!

The elemental that you get from a 7th level spell can be a much better ally than a monster from another 7th level spell.

If you're going to summon both elementals/demons and monsters/animals, summon the monsters/animals first, gather them around your caster, and cast Magic Circle Against Evil. Nothing is worse than summoning a bunch of undead or monsters and having them attack/attacked by that elemental/demon you just summoned.

Elementals and demons only attack the closest creature that doesn't have PFE. This means that even if you lose PFE, just make sure that there's an enemy of yours closer to the elemental/demon than you are and you'll be fine.

If you or an ally is being attacked by an elemental/demon, cast PFE on them and the elemental/demon will change targets after a few seconds.

Damien Foletto, Junior Designer

Playing tips: 1) When in battle, pay attention to the dialog box. Important information, like what kind of damage a beasty is susceptible to, scrolls in there.

2) Scout with your thief. I'll say it again: Scout with your thief. One of the best battle tactics you can use is hiding your thief and sending him/her out to scout ahead. This helps to reveal upcoming threats, thus allowing you to create a plan for attack. Hide and Move Silently are skills that cannot be emphasized enough for your thief.

3) Have your mage or sorcerer learn Invisibility as soon as possible. Say for some reason you decided not to put a lot of points into Hide and Move Silently for your thief, having Invisibility handy for casting helps to counter that deficiency. Just remember not to attack anything while invisible and alone.

4) Turn undead is a lifesaver. Always put a few ability points into CHA to help out your cleric's Turn Undead feat. If you can afford it, take Improved Turn Undead (I think that's what it's called) when you get a chance to choose feats a few levels up. There are quite a few areas where the undead rear their decomposed heads, and Turn Undead can make those encounters A LOT easier. It's especially fun when you're evil and have a horde of undead end up fighting for you.

5) Don't let a race's ECL (Effective Class Level) deter you from choosing them for your party. Just because they may not level as quickly as non-ECL races, that doesn't mean they aren't powerful. Take the deep gnome for example: They get a natural +4 to AC and get the ability to cast Invisibility once per day as a natural ability. This little guy makes a great rogue, no doubt about it. Another example is almost everyone's favorite anti-hero race, drow. With high natural magic resistance and bonus to intelligence, these are natural wizards. And nothing beats an aasimar for a cleric, imo.

6) Look for clues. Many of the game's puzzles and quests have multiple ways of solving them. Sometimes the most obvious (KILL THEM ALL!) way through is not always the best way through.

7) Always make sure your fighter-type has both a slashing weapon and bludgeoning weapon set up in the quick weapons slots. There are many beasties in IWD2 that may be impervious to one type of attack, but very susceptible to another. Since fighters are proficient in all weapons, this won't take anything away from their core development.

That's all I have for now. I'm sure there are more hints, and I'll post them once my brain lifts from the fog that is Vicadin induced.